Saturday 3 March 2012



Diamond Jubilee: Prince Harry visits Mayan ruins in Belize


Prince Harry at Xunantunich Prince Harry climbed the highest pyramid at Xunantunich


Prince Harry has visited the ruins of a Mayan city in Belize on the second day of his jubilee visit to the former British colony on behalf of the Queen.

The prince toured Xunantunich, a city of stone pyramids, palaces and temples that was abandoned in AD 950-1000.

He climbed the site's highest pyramid, El Castillo, as part of a private tour.

Over seven days, Prince Harry will visit the Bahamas and Jamaica as part of his jubilee tour. He will also go to Brazil for his charity, Sentebale.

Members of the Royal Family are visiting the 15 countries other than the UK where the Queen is head of state, along with some other Commonwealth nations, as part of this year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Queen Elizabeth II Boulevard
Arriving in Belize City, Prince Harry was greeted by a guard of honour and his grandmother's representative in the country, Governor General Sir Colville Young.

He then travelled to Belize's capital, Belmopan, where he officially named a new road Queen Elizabeth II Boulevard after his grandmother and took part in a street party.

Map showing Xunantunich in Belize

Other engagements during his time in the country include laying a wreath at the memorial to British soldiers who have died in the country over the years.

The trip to Brazil is in support of the government and his charity Sentebale, which supports orphans and vulnerable children in the southern African country of Lesotho.

Other royal tours as part of the Jubilee celebrations include a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the Far East and the Pacific.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will visit Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, the Duke of York will travel to India and the Princess Royal is set to visit Mozambique and Zambia.

The host countries are likely to hold a range of events for the visiting royals, from official banquets and public celebrations to events that showcase the individual nations.

The Diamond Jubilee will also see the Queen, 85, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 90, travel as widely as possible across the UK to mark the occasion.
Feb 22, 2012

PM says Superbond is Jack Boot on throat of Belizeans


Dean Barrow
The super bond slid into the election campaign when the prime minister announced the date for early general elections. He said he was going back to the people for instructions to do something about the super bond. The result was a prompt downgrade to junk territory of Belize’s credit ratings from agencies such as Standard and Poor and Moody’s. If he was floating that idea, today, at the launch of the U.D.P. Manifesto, Prime Minister Barrow was more provocative. He said he was not concerned at all about the Belize’s credit ratings and that bond holders would have to sit around the table with a future U.D.P. government to re-negotiate the five hundred and sixty-five million dollar bond. The February payment has been made but another is due past the elections in August, which according to the PM’s bravado, he won’t pay at eight and half percent interest rates.
Dean Barrow
“I was deliberate in announcing the date of the election, deliberate in saying that the U.D.P. was asking for a new mandate to among other things, do something about the super bond. Now, that really set the cat among the pigeons. And you say that the so called rating agencies fell all over themselves to say’ oh wi di downgrade Belize bonds. Explain to mi how Mr. Man downgrading the Belize bonds hurts the Belizean people? The Belize Bonds are the bonds that are owned out there by all those that loaned the People’s United Party this one point one billion dollars for which there is nothing to show. And if you downgrade the bonds so that the bonds have less value, I say that that strikes me something like poetic justice, because while the greatest blame for the share of saddling this country with the super bond must lie with the P.U.P., the creditors, the bond holders, the commercial entities, agreed to that super bond, knowing full well that the kind of burden it was placing on the Belizean people is absolutely unconscionable, merciless; those people also have a share of the blame. Therefore, this eight and a half percent that we have to begin to pay as of August of this year, which means ninety-four million dollars of our re-current revenue that ought properly speaking to be spent on you the people of this country. This eight and half percent interest rate, we will not suffer. Belize is a country that is a country of honor; we do not easily renege on commitments but if there are commitments that in effect represent a jack boot on the throat of the Belizean people, then unless those that are applying that jack-boot are prepared to re-negotiate, they will see that the Belizean people are not going to take it. We won’t lie down so that anybody could tek chance on us and the bottom line is, ‘Mr. Bond holder, Mr. Bad creditor, come to the table and renegotiate with Belizeans. You are obliged to give us a fairer deal.”

So what will be the impact of the prime minister’s statement? Well, it is likely that there could be a further erosion of investor’s confidence and that the economy could continue to languish. At the launch of the People’s United party manifesto on Tuesday, Francis Fonseca, called on the PM to whining about the super bond and put the economy back to work. The super bond is a consolidation of government loans that was negotiated in 2006 and concluded in 2007. It also includes loans made by former U.D.P. administrations.

Friday 2 March 2012

Prince Harry needs tact in Belize on first solo Royal tour

He is known as the party prince, but Prince Harry will need to show tact, maturity and diplomacy when he arrives in the Caribbean today for his first solo Royal tour.

Prince Harry will begin his tour in Belize today
Prince Harry will begin his tour in Belize today Photo: Getty Images
One of the key engagements being undertaken by the 27-year-old will be a meeting with Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, who said in January that she intended to remove the Queen as head of state to turn the country into a republic.
Rumours in Jamaica that the Prince’s itinerary was changed as a result of Mrs Simpson Miller’s forthright comments have been strenuously denied by St James’s Palace, which arranged the tour at the request of the Queen as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The Prince will begin his tour in Belize today, where he will meet the country’s prime minister before a visit tomorrow to the Mayan pyramid of Xunantunich.
He will also visit the Bahamas, moving on to Jamaica, where he will meet the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, before undertaking a trade mission to Brazil.
Royal aides are alert to the possibility that the visit to Brazil could be hijacked by protestors from neighbouring Argentina following increased tension over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.